Vultures circle GamerGate

There’s something about that writing style… I’d describe it as rude.

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Grade A Narcissist.

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Do not link is your friend.

Publisher’s Statement Regarding Mike Cernovich’s Twitter Conduct - Danger & Play

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I find this kind of article rather sad. Let me tell you why I have sympathy to Gamergate.

I once stood out in front of the Brooklyn Museum in 1999 with Susan Sarandon and a bunch of other people. What were we doing there? We were fighting Mayor Giuliani on the idea that he was threatening to cut funding to the museum due to the “moral outrage” of the Sensation exhibition from the UK.

I am a civil libertarian, not a right-winger, and I am thoroughly and completely against ninnies who want to blame any media for all the world’s ills. There is a side of the left wing, the left authoritarians, who believe that society must be controlled. They believe that people don’t need freedom, they need protection. They believe in “standards” and “guidelines” and ban lists. They believe in silencing voices that disagree with them, and they do this all for some vague greater good.

It seems to me that the people in the Gamergate movement don’t want these destructive propagandistic ideas and “standards” to infect their hobby. When a right wing shithead like Giuliani or Jack Thompson or Bill O’Reilly decries that media turns people into animals, it would seem that the audience of BoingBoing would fight back.

Where are you now?

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At this point, there really isn’t much reason other than being willfully obtuse. The women who are getting death threats are not trying to pass laws to limit what content can and cannot be put in games, they are saying, “These tropes are getting tired, maybe developers could try to do better.” And other people are agreeing.

But there are people who can’t tell that from censorship. And then there are people who are just looking for any excuse to attack women. Then there are people who do what they are told just as long as there is someone in a position of authority to tell them to do it. Then there are people who are so obsessed with the idea of fighting the good fight that they take any evidence against their position as evidence of a conspiracy against them.

That’s gamergate. I’m not sure which of those people you sympathize with. If anyone introduces a bill to control the content that can be put in video games, censoring content that would portrays women in a negative light and forcing developers to monitor and justify themselves, even if it has the Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Secret Feminist Cabal stamp of approval, I 100% promise you that we’ll be here saying what a bad idea it is.

In the real world.

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“Let me tell you why I have sympathy to Gamergate.”

For the love of god, please don’t.

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What about “hate speech”. Does your libertarianism extend to the point that you think people should be allowed to threaten violence against one another without consequence?

Art that is controversial because it’s imagery is offensive strikes me as categorically different from the words of people who threaten people with rape, murder, and general violence.

The idea that GamerGate is about freedom of artistic expression in gaming is not supported by their behavior. It is beyond difficult to reconcile their talking points with their actions.

It’d be a another matter if GG supporters were going online and only saying “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

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Citation required.

No, seriously. If this is the foundational point of your position, you’ve already lost.

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Straw men don’t rise up from the earth, fully formed. They must be built.

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So have Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian or Zoe Quinn supported mandatory standards and guidelines and ban lists?

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Not that I am arguing with you in any way, but whenever someone brings up that, I like to remind us of another Voltaire quotation: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Freedom of speech is a good thing, but that’s because there will be people out there countering the absurdities.

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Yes, that is a classic straw man argument. I’ve been following Gamergate, and have yet to see anyone claim that existing games should be censored, or new games should follow rules about content or characters. The only thing I’ve seen is “would sure be nice if there were better female characters in a game or two.” Which is a far, far cry from “people don’t need freedom” in service of a “vague greater good.”

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can’t decide if i’m surprised or not that you left Wikileaks off the list of the famous names who are pro-gamergate.

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OT, but that isn’t actually a Voltaire quote.

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Sex and violence are not categorically interchangeable.

Sexual behavior is a routine thing that everyone engages in during the course of their life. Committing an act of violence especially an extreme one, like killing another is not such a routine thing.

It is reasonable to think that of one’s sexual fantasy may effect one’s sexual reality.

Violent fantasy especially the extreme sort seen in video games does not have a real world analog in most people’s lives. So it is reasonable to think it’s effect on real world behavior would be different.

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I was expecting an article that showed some intellect…dissappionted that bb just went down the hey i’ll just find one guy as an example. For any argument simply pointing out ass-hats online doesnt make you look clever. Weak BB weak.

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I claim whatever loot this one drops.

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Incidentally the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate article is not as all as you would expect – I promise you.